Tom Robinson and his wife Susan Dieter-Robinson listen from the gallery during the first day of trial. Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros, 19, faces two counts of felony hit and run in the crash that killed Anna Dieter-Eckerdt, 6, and Abigail Robinson, 11.
(Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian)

On the witness stand, Tom Robinson looked at the last photos he’d taken of his daughter, 11-year-old Abigail, and stepdaughter, 6-year-old Anna Dieter-Eckerdt.

They were pictures of the girls playing outside their Forest Grove home: Anna in red, Abigail in green, knee-deep in a mound of crisp leaves, looking exuberant as they toss leaves in the air.

Shortly before his testimony, Washington County jurors saw a photo of Robinson’s house on tree-lined Main Street with a blazing-red maple out front.

In the hit-and-run trial of Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros on Thursday, Tom Robinson told jurors it was close to 8 p.m. Oct. 20, a Sunday, when he went outside with the girls to play in the leaves. He snapped pictures of them, while his wife was at a board meeting.

Robinson told the girls they had five more minutes to play before bedtime. He went inside to put the camera away. He set it down and typed a text message to his wife, Anna’s mom, Susan Dieter-Robinson.

“We’re getting ready for bed, having a great time in the leaves,” he recalled saying in the message.

He described his daughter Abigail – or Abby – as resilient, caring and a “great kid.”

For Valentine’s Day, he said, they had a ritual of exchanging paper hearts with messages that said what they loved about each other. One year, he wrote that he most admired Abigail’s compassion.

Wearing a green plaid shirt and a solemn expression, Robinson leaned forward with his elbows on the witness stand as he spoke.

“Anna came into my life with Susan,” he said with a small smile.

His 6-year-old stepdaughter had a “mischievous chuckle” and “a sparkle in her eye,” Robinson said.

Anna’s biological father, Randal Eckerdt, also attended the trial with his fiancee, Jane Samuels. Anna’s mother was present but left the courtroom for the duration of Robinson’s testimony.